Phantasm
by The Noob Cake
Summary: A new Incident occurs in Gensokyo, and in the middle of the chaos, a lone youkai conspires to begin an insurrection. OC alert!
1. Prelude to Chaos

**Disclaimer: Touhou Project belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. Any similarities found between this story and other media are purely coincidental. However, any original ideas (OC's, original spell cards, etc.) found in this story belong to the author.**

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><p><em>Reminisce the past...<em>

It was the one of the worst years of the Heian period. Eientei, the legendary House of Eternity and residence of the mythical Kaguya Houraisan, had withstood roughly two centuries of war, peace, and everything in between. There were always peculiar and supernatural occurrences happening within its vicinity, thanks to the traces of magic that hung in the air; sometimes, multicolored lights danced around Eientei, and in other times, the bright moon shone directly over the mansion.

But on this one night, nothing could prepare Eirin Yagokoro for what she would see.

She, some servants, and the mistress of the mansion sat in the back garden, anticipating the dance of lights that showed every seventh day of each lunar month.

"Eirin, when will the lights appear?" Kaguya asked.

The humanoid rabbit servants added to her question, asking, "Yes, Yagokoro-sama, when will they come?"

"Oh, they will come soon; perhaps in three minutes," Eirin replied. Even until now, she wondered if this was the right place to flee to after her past escapade of deliberately disobeying the orders of the Lunar Empire by not bringing Kaguya back to the moon. Just a few months ago, there was a civil war; the household of Eientei had risked detection when a battalion of warriors had traveled through the bamboo forest Eientei lay in. To make matters worse, they had cut down a sizeable amount of bamboo plants-

"Hey, the lights are here!"

Eirin's train of worried thought was cut when someone announced the arrival of the dancing lights, something that could take her mind off her problems. The lights were a sight to behold: balls of lights of all colors floated in the air, some merely floating, and some zipping above the garden. This is what the residents of Eientei had seen every week.

The lights floated around in a circular fashion, just like they did all the time. Both Kaguya and Eirin had made themselves comfortable in their seats as they began watching.

After one minute into the show, Eirin sat up from her reclined position. Of course, many saw and followed; she had noticed something unusual in the show.

Three balls of light, the first colored green, the second purple, and the third silver, brightened, as if calling for the attention of the spectators. The other lights gathered below the prominent three, while the latter three started circling around; the silver moved away from the other two.

Five seconds later, the green and the purple light moved towards the silver light. Then, the green light suddenly soared towards the silver one, making a U-turn around the silver light. As the green ball returned to its original position, the silver ball pursued the green ball like a predator chasing its prey.

This elicited a "Woah!" from the audience, excluding Eirin.

The purple light seemed to fly alongside the green light, both speeding away from the silver ball. The former two then stopped, letting the silver light join them as they began dancing in the air once more.

For a moment, they stopped, and then the dance began once more. The only difference now was that the green light had darted away from the dancing spectacle.

After a long minute of fanciful flying, the show had ended. To top the performance was a last hurrah: the purple light brightened up like a supernova before exploding, and sent smaller but identical lights in all directions.

The rabbits started chattering excitedly, discussing how awesome the performance had been. Eirin could hear several distinct laughs and "Wow, did you see that" phrases as the rabbits talked the remainder of the night away.

"Well, that was something, wasn't it, Eirin?" Kaguya didn't wait for a reply as she continued, "Well, I'll be going to sleep now. Will you be going to sleep, too?"

Eirin then snapped out of her deep thinking to reply, "No, not yet, Lady Kaguya."

"Okay, then. Oh yes, next time, just call me Kaguya."

As the last few rabbits left the garden, Eirin stood up and left, still pondering about one thing…

Could the show have meant something?

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><p>The youkai woke up.<p>

Present-day Gensokyo, the land of fantasies, was a relatively peaceful land. In fact, it was too peaceful; only when someone had the guts to try and rile everyone in Gensokyo up did it become lively. The dream world connected to it, Genmukai, was no better.

So thought a certain youkai of the dream world, who was currently working with what looked like strands of glowing thread. He had white hair with a green bandana wrapped around the head, wore a long white robe fastened with black buttons and having black sleeves, and black dress shoes. His ebony black eyes were fixed on the pattern he was creating with the thread; neon shades of white, blue, red, and green were entwined in a random order. He thought that Genmukai was a perfect place to do his work; there was no one who wanted to disturb him.

Although, there were many times he was wrong about that. He sensed someone coming.

Footsteps. He could hear muffled clopping coming from behind him.

He didn't turn to face the newcomer and continued working. "What do you want, Yuuka? I'm kinda busy right now."

"Yeah, I can see that. Are you actually making nightmares this early in the day?"

Yuuka Kazami, the mendacious, flower-loving resident of the Genmukai, was bored. It was only natural; there wasn't much to do in Genmukai or the Garden of the Sun, her residence outside Genmukai, and there was no one to pick a fight with in Gensokyo. She wore a red plaid skirt along with a waistcoat of the same color, accompanied with a white shirt underneath. She had short wavy green hair and red eyes.

"What's wrong with that? Not like it actually matters to you." He still didn't turn.

"I'm your neighbor! Aren't neighbors supposed to know what the other is doing?" asked Yuuka.

"The last time I checked, you don't stay here very often. Don't neighbors live near each other, instead of moving in and out?"

"…Guess you're right," Yuuka, whose attempt at a conversation had crashed and burned, sighed in defeat.

She came closer to the busy youkai and peeked over his shoulder. "Well, you really made something there, didn't you?" referring to the almost net-like weave of energy.

"Wait, Mukei, shouldn't you be prying into your victims' minds before making a nightmare? I mean, you don't go to war without gathering information first, right?"

At this, Mukei Fujiwara, a crow youkai and giver of nightmares, shifted his gaze to Yuuka.

"Are you talking about this?" Mukei pointed to his project. "This is a special one, you see; the victim of this nightmare doesn't snag on to them quite easily, and even then, she," Mukei stopped for emphasis, "can get out of nightmares. Besides, my regular dreams can't compare with her sleeping time."

"Oh! You want to scare _her_ out of her wits! You got some guts there," Yuuka said, referring to the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo.

"I'm not going to use it yet, though," Mukei replied.

"But, wait!" Yuuka's eyes lit up, as if she found a secret, and said with a mischievous grin, "You're not telling me everything, are you? You know better than to lie to me. You're talking to a professional liar here!"

Mukei face palmed. He just kept his mouth shut, knowing that he had just fed Yuuka an idea.

"Come on, tell me!" Yuuka put her head on Mukei's shoulders, "Tell me, tell me, tell me-"

Mukei was visibly annoyed. "Sunflower," he snapped, "if you're going to keep pestering me like this, I might as well tell you something."

"Don't call me that!" Yuuka screamed into his ear.

"I've caused several Incidents already, and no one has found out that I gave the culprits ideas. That in itself proves that I do have a lot of guts. I mean, if anyone did some extra snooping, it would eventually lead to me."

Then, he stood up. "But now, Gensokyo's gotten too boring again. No matter how many dreams I make and give to some potential instigators, they just aren't buying them anymore."

"So, I'm going to start an Incident, and make sure I have fun. Who knows, I might even give the old hag a run for her money!"

Yuuka just stared wide-eyed at the weaver, who promptly returned to finishing his project.

"Have you finally lost your mind?" she questioned.

"I might be insane, but you're crazy for thinking that," Mukei stood up and turned around "If you don't think I can handle it, then let's have a spell card duel."

"That's not a wise decision," Yuuka cracked her fists menacingly.

Tension was rising. "Oh, let's just see about that!" Mukei's right hand moved to a pocket on his robe.

Yuuka did likewise. "Okay, you're asking for it! Don't quit on me when we're already fighting!"

They both drew a card, and pointed it at each other.

Both cards glowed white, and a white spherical structure erupted from each card, forming a barrier around the area. The opponents stared intently at the glowing sphere, waiting for them to turn a full white, which would tell them that the fight had started.

"You still have ten seconds to back out, you know," Yuuka suggested. She received no reply.

Then, it flashed.

Yuuka took her parasol out of nowhere and used it to shoot giant yellow energy bullets in a funnel at her opponent. "Eat this, loser!" she cackled afterwards, adrenalin coursing through her system.

"…crap," Mukei muttered as he flew through the tiny gaps between the bullets. He returned fire, shooting dark blue bullets in a helical pattern at his opponent.

Yuuka took to the air, dodging the opponent's barrage. Wasting no time in crushing her opponent, Yuuka revealed a spell card and declared it.

"Flower Sign," Yuuka yelled, "Reflowering of Gensokyo!"

A cluster of yellow bullets appeared behind Yuuka and spread in the shape of six overlapping petals. They quickly spread out in the directions they were facing. She shot more streams of bullets to accompany the spell card.

"If you're so suicidally confident about this, you'd better beat me first!"

All of the bullets brushed Mukei as he flew his way to the source, blasting Yuuka in the face. Now Mukei felt pumped; his heart was racing, and his hands shook uncontrollably. He was actually enjoying this.

Yuuka crashed into the ground, but got back up looking unharmed.

"Oh, so you are serious about this."

She took another spell card out and aimed her parasol at Mukei. He stared in horror at what she was going to do and prepared his own spell card.

Yuuka was first. "Power Surge,"

"Nightmare Sign, Inquisitor's Needle!"

"Master Spark!"

A blue seven-foot-tall beam accompanied by a thunderous roar echoed across Genmukai as a sharp sound of clanging metal could be heard above the clamor.

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><p>Rumia was a nuisance. Besides attacking passers-by in order to feast on their flesh, the little squirt stole food from more powerful youkai. Well, it seemed that every time she did try to steal, the attempt would go horribly wrong, and she would be blasted in the face or chased off (or possibly both). It did not help that she activates her power of darkness every single time; she apparently blinded herself by doing so.<p>

This time, she stole it from the wrong person.

She flew away when her cover was blown. The enraged would-have-been victim trailed her, shooting crackling orbs of electricity at her. She was definitely a magician, Rumia mused. As she flew over the trees of the Forest of Magic, her heart beat loudly as if it was trying to jump out her chest. She wanted to scream for dear life but kept as calm as she could.

Then, a branch snagged on to her foot.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Now she lost it. Rumia's blood went hot as she hastily unhooked her foot and took flight again.

"Keep screaming, you little twerp! I'm enjoying every second of this!" yelled the pursuer. The pursuer unleashed a volley of energy bullets at the darkness youkai and increased her flight speed.

"Stop following me, you big meanie!" Left with very few options, Rumia resolved to try her luck against this youkai mage. She abruptly stopped her flight and dropped twenty feet to a small clearing in the forest.

"What the heck?" the woman looked around, "Where did you go?"

Mustering energy in her right hand, she clawed at the space above her, forming a black rift. This had better work, she thought. She focused the energy into the rift, which in turn glowed gray.

Ten obsidian blades shot out from the rift. As the magician looked down, the blades slashed her and left bloody gashes in their wake.

The magician yelped in pain. "Oh, now you're in for it."

This time, she launched a massive white orb at Rumia. The darkness youkai jumped away from the orb and shot her own black sphere, but it missed its mark. The magician flew down to confront her and landed twenty feet away from the youkai's position.

Rumia did not wait for the magician's next move. She fumbled for a spell card in her sleeve. She didn't care which one she took out. She needed it NOW.

"Darkness Sign, Demarca-"

The declaration was cut off when a white talisman tagged the youkai's arm. Rumia yelped in surprise and let go of her spell card.

"Limitation, Coiled Cage!"

Six white spheres materialized around the magician. They flung themselves at Rumia and encircled her. Beams of energy linked the adjacent orbs until a big circle formed around Rumia. The woman then fired a narrow volley of bullets that blanketed the insides of the circle. The youkai sighed in relief after noticing that the bullets were easy to dodge. Of course, that brief respite did not last long.

Four horizontal lasers cleaved into the circle, frying Rumia's abdomen. The bullets she was dodging earlier slammed into her body. Now the pain was unbearable. It happened so fast she couldn't even scream.

Rumia dropped to the ground.

It was over.

"Oooooh..." Rumia moaned.

The magician walked over to the youkai sprawled on the ground. "So, twerp, does it hurt?"

Well, of course it does, Rumia thought. She was too injured to even reply.

"Do you know what's next?" the woman picked Rumia up by her head and threw her high into the air. The magician drew her back-mounted scythe and focused energy to the end of the shaft; it glowed white and brimmed with power. She held it with two hands like a bat.

Rumia's heart pumped even faster from before, and sweat started to form in her hands; to say that she was scared was an understatement.

"This'll teach you not to mess around. Next stop: the Great Hakurei Border!" she swung the backside of the scythe as Rumia fell back to the ground.

"Gaaaaaaaaah!" Rumia screamed as she was sent flying across the sky. She crashed with a sickening thud just a few inches away from the Misty Lake, which was adjacent to the forest.

Chiseki Fujiwara was very, very satisfied. She walked away from the scene and headed for her recently ransacked house. It was a simple house; it was made of red-brown wood, was only one-storey high, and, unsurprisingly, was big enough for one person. Windows were on all walls except for the one where the door was in.

The only thing that was really upturned was the kitchen; Rumia only wanted to steal food. Besides that, the rest of the humble house was untouched; that was a very good thing, otherwise she would have to fix her house when she could be relaxing.

After dodging some bored fairies and bullets, she found herself sitting down on a flat outcrop at the outskirts of a massive bamboo grove. She absent-mindedly fixed her short black hair and straighted her now messy purple-white robe. Her red eyes stared at the unchanging scenery of Gensokyo; even after two hundred years of living here, she still couldn't figure out why nothing changed or why it was so darned boring all the time. Nobody really wanted anything else from this pseudo-paradise, though.

But maybe it wouldn't be so boring soon. She hadn't seen her brother anywhere for quite a while now; maybe he would bring a surprise when he decided to show up again. The last time he went missing, he was actually planning a prank-

BOOM!

"Shoo, you overgrown bird! Don't bother me now!"

"Then shut up, you spoiled brat, and let me enjoy killing you!"

Chiseki turned to the source of the explosion. An intense array of rainbow bullets streaked across the sky, along with two tiny figures shooting bullets and dodging as well. From where she was, she observed that one of the figures had long silver hair while the other had long black hair.

She could also see several leaked bullets flying at her. There were a lot of them.

"This day couldn't get any worse, could it?"

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><p>Yuuka brandished her parasol at Mukei.<p>

Several craters riddled the plains they were fighting on, brought about by Yuuka's Master Sparks. There were also several large needles stuck on the ground, from Mukei's Inquisitor's Needles.

Now, they were locked in a melee fight, with Yuuka gaining the upper hand.

With both hands on his weapon, Mukei jabbed straight at her with his nagamaki polearm, and followed it up with a small, wide shot of bullets. He felt like he was fighting a losing battle; he panted with every move he made, and he was already swinging his polearm haphazardly.

Yuuka flew back and blocked the bullets easily with her parasol. "Oh, is that the best you got?"

The other just stated, "Reality's Fantasy, Fantasy Contrast."

"What?" Yuuka yelped.

Apparently, Mukei still had enough energy to come up with a plan. A spell card stuck on Yuuka's flower umbrella glowed with a deep purple hue before releasing a spiraling explosion of petal-shaped bullets. The sunflower youkai was struck, and this made her let go of her parasol. The bullets retracted a few seconds after they appeared, forming back into a single bullet.

Then the surroundings darkened as if there were thunderclouds above them. Mukei released a steady stream of bright bullets that snaked towards his target. The sunflower youkai flew away from the bullets, but they relentlessly pursued her. At random points in the stream, explosions of petal-shaped bullets expanded and retracted over and over.

Yuuka felt sleepy; her eyelids were getting heavy, and her eyes were beginning to strain from the wide light contrast of the bullets and her surroundings. Maybe, just for a little while, she could close her eyes for a bi-

Without warning, she was pelted with the bullets she had stopped dodging. Mukei took this chance to blast her into submission; he focus-fired on the distracted youkai.

Yuuka fell flat on her back, but was able to recover in mere seconds. Then, having regained her footing, she aimed her parasol at Mukei once more.

"Oh, come on, get real! Did you think that you already won? Nobody loses to a single spell card!" Yuuka hollered. Still holding up her parasol, a magic double stepped out from the youkai's body.

A spell card appeared on the tip of both Yuuka's parasol.

"Eat my dust! Overflow, Dual Spark!"

A beam the size of a Master Spark shot out from both parasols. Mukei barely had enough time to fly up and out of the way of each laser.

Maybe it was a bad idea to pick a fight with her, the crow thought; every time Yuuka was knocked down, she recovered quickly, as if she was just merely shoved back.

Mukei summoned two conduits in the shape of an orb. In any danmaku battle, these orbs are often used for weakening the opponent, if playing safe was what the battlers were going for. Getting hit by its bullets for a long enough time would be as painful as getting hit with a single bullet from a spell card. He aimed them at one of the Yuukas and fired.

"Is that the best you can do: puny bullets? I've seen fairies do worse!" the two Yuukas taunted. They fired another Dual Spark, which Mukei coolly dodged. While he continued firing, the Yuukas continued blasting away at him for what seemed to be an eternity.

"Hey, Yuuka! Stop using those bricks you call a spell card! I've seen fairies do more interesting things!"

Mukei threw his spear at Yuuka, the spear forming bullets around its blade, making it resemble a comet. The two Yuukas shot another laser, but the real one noticed the spear too late; it ran right through her and embedded itself in her abdomen. It seemed to be the same for the crow youkai, who was engulfed in both lasers.

When both attacks subsided, both opponents fell to the ground, with Yuuka's double vanishing in a puff of smoke. Ethereal glass shards flew out of the shattering sphere that surrounded the battlefield.

When Yuuka got back up, she took the spear out of her body, wincing in great pain. Her red plaid dress was all bloodied up, but her wound was quickly disappearing. Likewise, Mukei was already up on his feet, although he looked like a burnt piece of charcoal and was wobbling in his place, disoriented.

"You ruined my dress!" Yuuka yelled, "Anyway, good work there. I see you've stepped your game up a bit since we last fought," she dusted her clothes with her hands, trying to keep them as neat as she possibly could.

Mukei yawned. "Wh… Wha… What? Oh, thanks, I guess."

"So, you're really going to push through with that Incident. Good luck with that. Now, I have to go."

"Okay, see you when I see you," replied Mukei. He wobbled his way back to his worktable, which, somehow, was left unscathed throughout the fight.

"Hey, it's still fine!" he then promptly fell on the table.

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><p>"Done."<p>

After a few hours of sewing and weaving, Mukei had completed a small ball of crackling purple energy, which was now sitting in the middle of a white table cloth.

"Now, I'll have to find the victim."

Mukei took the ball, opened up a portal, and left Genmukai. He now stood on an island in the middle of a large lake, the Misty Lake, and the first thing he saw was the bright afternoon sun, whose heat radiated on the surface of Gensokyo. He turned around, and saw what he came for…

…the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

He was sure his target dreamer was asleep, taking an afternoon nap.

Mukei sent the hovering ball towards the mansion. Then, he opened up another portal. Before going in, he chuckled.

As he entered the portal, his smile could not be contained.

The environment of a region in Genmukai changed according to one's dream. For Mukei, he could see the sky darkening with thunderclouds.

That was his cue. Because of his ability to manipulate dreams, he could also be in them and terrorize the sleeper. But he had to do a really good job of that, otherwise the attempt would just be a bomb.

Suddenly, four long, black, jointed legs erupted from the crow youkai's abdomen and planted themselves into the ground, and blood sprayed from his abdomen from where the legs sprouted; it greatly stained his clothes with crimson blood. His human legs hung limp as the four new legs stood straight. His irises turned from a pure black to a deep purple. Mukei's weapon, a nagamaki polearm, materialized in his hands. Black crow wings sprouted on his back. This was the appearance Mukei bore when he decided to go mess someone's dream up.

His face wore a crazed look as he searched for the sleeper.

Soon enough, he found her. In the middle of the plains of the region, the dreamer stood, looking left and right with no idea where she was.

Mukei flew at her, with the nagamaki positioned for impaling. His mouth formed a creepy grin. Blood left a trail behind him.

As he got closer, he could see the sleeper better. He caught a glimpse of brown bat-like wings, neat blue shoulder-length hair, clothes with a pale shade of red-violet, and (of course) a hat, specifically a mob cap, of the same color.

The sleeper turned around and saw Mukei.

Panic set in the girl's face. She was caught off guard by his sudden and terrifying appearance.

She ran.

Thud… thud… thud… thud…

Insane laughter could be heard for miles away.

"Remilia Scarlet, manipulator of fate!" Mukei bellowed.

The vampire girl, Remilia Scarlet, could not comprehend the situation. She faced the incoming assailant anyway, ready to fight him.

"Welcome to your perfect nightmare!"

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><p><strong>Read and review (no flames please)! This is first Touhou fan fic, so please do give some constructive criticism. Don't expect too much from this, though. <strong>


	2. The Rippling has Begun

**Double update! I haven't updated in a long time, have I?**

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><p>Marisa Kirisame, the Ordinary Magician, was off on another book raid. She had made sure to lock the door of her house and activate the magic traps laid around it.<p>

"Oven trap, check... Laser trap, check... Tree trap, check..., catapult, check!" she pointed at each trap as she enumerated them. For her, there was no such thing as "too prepared" when it came to warding of thieves or youkai.

She brought her broom before walking away at a leisurely pace, humming as she went. Her target: the usual one, the Voile library, which was nestled under the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The blonde witch headed for the Misty Lake, her stroll uneventful. She swore that she could hear some whimpering along the way, although whatever she may have heard was drowned out by the rustling tree leaves.

By the time she got there, the lakefront was desolate. Everything here near the lake was the same as always: the trees, the sky, the grass, the random fairy, the wooden signboard, the crater-

"What the heck happened here?"

The newly-formed crater caught Marisa's attention. Soil lay around the hole, and the ground around it burnt. In the center lay a little girl- a youkai, no doubt- whose arms were stretched wide open. Her black clothes and blonde hair were a bit burnt. Fortunately, she was still alive; she was still breathing, and her eyes were wide open.

"What was her name again? Rumia, was it?" Marisa pondered. Did she need to help the youkai?

"...h...help?" as if replying to Marisa's thoughts, Rumia turned her head to look at the witch, pleading with a high-pitched, broken voice.

"Meh, whatever," the witch decided not to help her; there was still some raiding to do! Why waste time helping this youkai when she could be pestering another! (That was one of her favorite pastimes.)

The witch held her broom horizontally, made it hover, and jumped onto it, sitting in the center of the broom stick.

"...d-don't leave me here!"

"I wonder if Patchy's sleeping…" she said to herself, blatantly ignoring the youkai's pleas, "that would make my coming in much easier." Marisa shot into the air, leaving the place in the blink of an eye. The cool wind blew against her face.

For the first few seconds, nothing came out to shoot at the recently-arrived witch. Some sprites would pop out of the water to see what was going on, but they would just as quickly submerge themselves in the lake again. The silence gave Marisa an eerie feeling, and the mist that formed over the water did not help to reduce the feeling.

Soon enough, some bored fairies noticed her and decided to shoot at the witch. These fairies were of the generic kind; they wore green, blue, or red dresses, had two pairs of wings sprouting from their back, and had a penchant for picking fights with by-standers and passers-by. Unsurprisingly, Marisa slipped past their projectiles easily.

She drew a blank spell card from her back pocket.

"Get out of the way, morons!" the witch flung the card at the mass of fairies a half mile in front of her. The card was set to go off in five seconds.

Five. It was a fourth of the way between Marisa and the fairies. The lake fairies were still shooting and missing, and Marisa was approaching them.

Four. It was halfway between the two parties. The fairies relentlessly fired but consistently missed.

Three. The card was already three-fourths of the way.

Two. It bounced off a fairy up and above the group. Marisa was getting much closer.

One. The card fell back down.

BOOM! The card released bullets in all direction, mowing the clumped-up group of fairies down.

"Hahahaha! Eat that, suckers!" Marisa flew through the now free path, getting closer to the island in the middle of the lake.

"Hey, hey, hey! Stop right there, black-white!"

The owner of the new voice surfaced from below. She wore a blue ribbon over her short blue hair, a white blouse, and a blue jumper dress. She had three pairs of ice wings, which showed anyone she met that she was an ice fairy. Her demand came with a smirk that she always seemed to show.

"Of all the people- What do you want, ice fairy?" an annoyed Marisa asked.

"I, the strongest fairy, want to challenge you to another fight! And my name is Cirno!" the ice fairy proudly replied. She crossed her arms and closed her eyes for dramatic effect. Right after that, she looked again, only to find that Marisa had left during her boast.

"Hey, wait, where did you go? Oh darn, all that trouble for nothing..."

"You know what, I don't want to fight right now," Cirno quickly turned to look at Marisa, who had been behind her, charging a Master Spark all the while, "Why don't you go do something else, instead of always fighting?"

* * *

><p>To make a long story short, Marisa was now on the isle where the mansion stood, and nobody had noticed despite the loud ringing sound of the Master Spark Marisa had released. That was very convenient. She aimed the broom towards a small window on the left which was adjacent to the ground.<p>

"Banzai!" Marisa yelled as she crashed into the window, making a loud and unusual entrance into the Voile. The librarian, Patchouli Knowledge, looked up from her research to see her flying forty-five feet to the ground. Her unfriendly eyes stared uninterestedly at the intruder.

"Hi!" Marisa's broom stopped inches before the floor before landing. She stopped to greet Patchouli, even waving her right hand.

The librarian returned her greeting by shooting a fireball at the witch. It missed.

"For how long will you keep this nonsense up?" the purple-clad librarian grumbled, not moving from her seat. Marisa's antics had lasted for almost seven years now, and she was not enjoying any second of it.

"Aw, stop being so grumpy. You only need to wait for a hundred fifty or so years because by then, I'd probably be dead," Marisa regained her lift, putting both hands on the broomstick, "You're youkai, right? A hundred fifty years is nothing for you!"

A blue symbol appeared below Marisa. Freezing her would definitely keep her in place. Unfortunately for the librarian, the witch had recognized the spell and flew away before it could encase her in ice.

"Before we go chasing each other again," Patchouli said, "I'd like to ask you a question."

"Okay, Patchy, I'm all ears!" Marisa cupped her right hand, putting it on her right ear.

The librarian pointed towards the hole Marisa had made entering the library. "Do you feel an abnormal amount of energy anywhere around the island, barring the mansion itself?"

The Ordinary Witch pondered for a while. "Nope," she answered, "but I do feel a weird feeling outside, like a... I don't know, that bird from the Former Hell?"

"Oh, I see... so, it isn't just me who senses it..." Patchouli resumed writing notes for her research. Marisa heard the librarian muttering.

Marisa started cracking up in excitement as she flew away again, heading for a four-storey high wall of bookshelves that made up part of the Voile. A large sack mysteriously appeared in Marisa's left hand.

"Hey, Patchy, can I borrow some books?" Marisa asked.

Lasers and fireballs launched from behind the witch, threatening to cook her. Patchouli got up from her seat, preparing to take flight after Marisa.

"Okay!" Marisa shouted. Clearly, she took the hostility as a "yes."

Freeing her grip on the broom, Marisa used her right hand to force (using magic) as many books off their shelves as she possibly could with one hand while flying right beside the shelves, catching them with her sack afterwards.

"Woo hoo!" Marisa cheered as Patchouli chased after the thief, firing spells at her. Even after so many years of pillaging the library, it never failed to make Marisa happy.

"Scram!" Patchouli shouted as she fired powerful water balls at Marisa.

"Try catching me if you can, you old shut-in!"

"Don't call me that!" Patchouli quickly retorted, firing yet another water ball.

Books of all sizes and colors fell from their shelves and into either Marisa's sack or the red carpet floor. Marisa took dizzying turns as she tried to shake Patchouli off her tail, obviously failing.

The librarian did not have a difficult time chasing the "rat," as she called Marisa, and was actually giving the intruder a hard time stealing. The floor started shooting out pillars of fire, just licking the tail end of Marisa's flying broom. The sudden blast startled Marisa, making her fly faster to outrun the encroaching flames.

A wave of the librarian's hand summoned icicles that pursued the witch, only to crash into books and bookcases. The witch switched among hallways between bookcases to force the icicles to crash into them. Although they did not harm any of the books or furniture, they could not even graze Marisa.

Patchouli was already having a coughing fit from the exertion of rapid-fire spell casting, but that had to be shrugged off. The librarian of the Voile was infamous for her poor health and bouts of asthma, which led to Marisa almost always successfully stealing from the mansion's giant book collection.

"Aw, poor Patchy; having a bad case of cough already?" Marisa looked behind her shoulder at her pursuer, sticking out her tongue to mock her. She flipped across a bookcase to yet another walkway, with Patchouli following suit.

The next few seconds were uneventful until Marisa reached the end of the walkway. From the main hallway, a boulder thrice her size appeared and rapidly rolled in an attempt to squish the incoming intruder.

"What the-" Marisa tilted her broom upwards, flying over the path of the boulder. Patchouli gained altitude as well, but not before sending another volley of homing icicles over the boulder.

The witch caught a glance at the new volley of icicles. They were gaining ground faster than she would have hoped. At least she was getting close to the main hallway.

No reason to prolong this, Patchouli thought. At a downward flick of her wrist, a forceful gale blew through the wide hallway. Marisa and the pursuing icicles were caught in the flow of the wind and quickly approaching the end of the wind stream. That puzzled the witch; she was being pushed towards the exit of library.

"You're not going to take your books back? Okay, see you again soon!" Marisa smiled, looking back to wave at whatever was behind her.

What the witch could not see was the rope net that hung in the way of her broom. Marisa was caught in the net, sending her speeding broom crashing into the doors of the library and letting her crash into the floor along with her sack. From the ceiling, three steel walls and a mirror descended into the center of the reception area, forming a cage around the victim. A fourth steel wall landed on top of the other four, acting as a ceiling to the cage.

* * *

><p>Marisa could only stare dumbfounded at what had just happened.<p>

"Patchy, what just happened?" Marisa turned around and shook her head a few times before looking at Patchouli, who had already landed. The only thing separating them was the cage.

"I've caught you; that's what happened!" Patchouli fist-pumped, a smile forming on her face, "Yes! Hahahaha! I've finally caught the rat, I've finally caught the rat!" The librarian had every intention of gloating in front of her captive. She even tempted Marisa by waving a book for her to see. Her shouts of "I've finally caught the rat!" (and coughs) could be heard all throughout the library.

"Now, stay where you are, and don't try breaking out," Patchouli finished celebrating and walked back to her desk, hastily straightening her dress.

Marisa took out an octagonally-shaped object, the mini-Hakkero, from under her hat and aimed at the glass pane.

"Love Sign, Master Spark!"

The witch's trademark spell slammed into the glass. The recoil sent Marisa staggering back a bit, although, at this point in time, she was already used to it. The roar of the laser was so loud and contained that it threatened to deafen Marisa. Now that she did not see coming.

Another thing she didn't expect was that the glass pane was completely unharmed by the laser.

"Aw, crap!" Marisa withdrew the conduit and moved towards the glass. Inspecting it, she knocked on it, making a previously unseen thing ripple across it. There was also a weird ringing sound that came with the ripple. The barrier acted like water, so it was probably reinforced with magic.

"So that's why," she realized that Patchouli had planned ahead of time for this.

What was she going to do now?

"Ooooh... This is going to be fun!"

Apparently, Marisa had found entertainment.

Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-

The ringing sounds leaked out of the cage, filling the library with the same sounds that had interested the witch.

It rang in the librarian's ears and had made practically everything within the vicinity vibrate. Dislodged books fell from their shelves, their thuds adding to the Marisa's cacophony. Meticulously arranged pens on Patchouli's table started moving out of place from all the shaking.

"Augh! Marisa! What on earth are you doing!" Patchouli put her hands over her ears. She could not even hear her own voice. She was already clenching her teeth to ease her discomfort, but that was not working too well.

Of course, Marisa did not reply.

Just when it looked like Patchouli was going to stop the witch, a fairy maid entered the library.

"Ms. Patchouli! Ms. Patchouli!" she shouted.

Patchouli rose from her seat, walking past the cage and to the maid.

"What is it?" the librarian shouted in reply, not taking her hands off her ears.

The maid followed suit, putting her hands over her ears. "The mistress requests you to come to her room!"

"Whatever for?"

"I don't know, I wasn't told!"

"Very well, then!" Patchouli motioned for the maid to follow her as she left.

Marisa was left alone in the library. As soon as Patchouli left, the barrier Marisa had been knocking on stopped rippling. It became regular glass again.

"Oh, hey, it stopped! I wonder if I can break it now?" Marisa took out her mini-Hakkero again, this time intending to carve a door-shaped hole in the glass using a thin laser beam. This time, the barrier did not stop the laser, and Marisa was able to carve her way out. A grin formed on her face.

"Back to borrowing!"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Patchouli had made her way to the master's bedroom. The door was a bit open, which was very unusual; anyone who entered would make sure to close it.<p>

"Remi, may I come in?" She knocked the door, making sure not to step in.

Patchouli could hear some running inside the room. The door suddenly opened, revealing a very distraught girl.

"There you are, Patchy! Come in! Now!" the mistress of the mansion, Remilia Scarlet, demanded as if something horrible had happened. Once the librarian had gone in, the vampire slammed the door shut.

They were not the only people inside. The chief maid, Sakuya Izayoi, along with the gate guard, Hong Meiling, were there as well. Patchouli took her place beside her two co-workers, awaiting Remilia's orders. She put her hands together, positioning them behind her like a soldier awaiting his orders, albeit in a more relaxed position.

"Now that we're all here, could you tell us what happened, Lady Remilia?" Sakuya politely asked. She had stood where she was for the entire time. (So did Meiling.)

Remilia took a chair from nearby and sat on it. She took a deep breath, then began her explanation.

"Okay, first of all, I want to make sure I'm not still dreaming."

Patchouli spoke up. "Remi," she said with a calm voice, "look at the clock."

The vampire hesitated but eventually turned to look at the large analog clock on the far left wall of the bedroom. "It's half past four," she turned to look at the librarian in reply.

"Now, look again. Is it still half past four?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Remilia spoke her thoughts out loud. Clearly, her mind was not in its best condition. She checked the clock again.

"Yes, it is. What was the point of that questions?" The vampire slouched slightly in her seat. There was a tone of suspicion in her voice.

"If this was a dream," Patchouli explained, "then the clock would not display a constant time. Does this expel your doubt?"

Remilia nodded. She continued, "Yes. Now, all three of you are probably wondering why I sent for you," she took another deep breath, "Well, this is going to sound stupid..."

After a moment of hesitation, the girl sighed. "I need company. I'm scared," Remilia put her hands up in the air as if she had surrendered, "There, I said it. I'm scared."

This statement made all three servants raise their eyebrows.

"Was there anything that happened earlier, Lady Remilia?" now, Sakuya's voice was the one showing suspicion.

Remilia's eyes quickly widened for a second, and her breathing became sharp. "I won't tell what happened...," there were momentary pauses from her deep breathing, as if she was forced to recall a bad memory, "Rather, I will... show all of you. Patchy?"

"I assume you want a memory recall spell, Remi?" Patchouli shifted in her place before freeing her hands. Remilia obviously wanted a memory recall spell, plus a visual projection of it.

"Yes. Now do it, before I regret allowing you to. Look for the nightmare."

Patchouli walked towards Remilia, putting two fingers (index and middle) on the vampire's forehead. A few words escaped the librarian's lips. Her fingertips glowed white as she concentrated, looking for the dream within the memories. It was not long until she-

"Found it," Patchouli declared. She withdrew her hand, and a string appeared, attached to the two fingers she used. Using the other hand, Patchouli summoned a blue energy bullet and connected the strings to it. It turned black. The librarian put her fingers inside the orb, pulling out another set of strings for herself and attaching it to Meiling's forehead. She repeated the the action twice, for Sakuya and herself.

"Uh, Patchouli, what are you doing?" Meiling fiddled with the strings on her forehead, plucking them like a person would with a guitar.

The librarian paused to think. "Let me put it this way: this setup will be like giving handouts for each of us to read instead of sharing one handout among the three of us, and the handouts are all about Remilia's memories of her dream."

"Oh," Meiling replied.

The three turned to glance at Remilia. One thing to note was that Remilia's eyes were still open, and because of this, all three servants could see her eyes widen. She was also beginning to gasp for breath. Her hands clenched the armrest of the chair, shaking.

She was going to relive her nightmare, whether she wanted to or not.

The orb began to brighten, turning into a deep shade of red...


	3. Broken Tower

"Fool!" Remilia bent her knees and unsheathed her claws, leaping at Mukei. She reached him at a breakneck speed, and Mukei was barely able to raise his polearm to prevent his face from getting clawed. Mukei did not expect a retaliation this early and fast.

"You dare fight the Queen of the Night?" Remilia shouted. She swung her claws left and right repeatedly, giving no opening for Mukei to attack. The crow youkai jumped back. The vampire stopped her assault for a moment. Seeing an opening, Mukei positioned his right hand near the hilt of his handle (the left hand was farther away), and tried to stab the vampire, but to no avail. However, Remilia couldn't attack either; she was too busy dodging the stabs.

They were both being kept on their toes, and neither of them were happy about it. As soon as one stopped attacking, the other would immediately counterattack.

Mukei switched to swinging his weapon. He swung his polearm left, and his body twisted along, held in place by the four legs protruding from him. Remilia jumped away to the right, then roared, pouncing on her opponent. Returning to his original position, Mukei swung right this time, slashing the vampire's midsection. Before she was sent flying, Remilia clawed the youkai's face, leaving three gashes on his face.

"Oof!" Remilia hit the ground back-first as Mukei staggered back, shouting. They got to their feet in no time, readying themselves once more.

Remilia put her right hand above her injury, and blood started flowing towards the hand.

"...Gungnir," no one but she could hear the word. The blood in Remilia's hand flew outward, resembling a shaft. She hurled it at Mukei. A giant red spearhead formed at its end, and the vampire's legendary spear, Gungnir, was completed.

The youkai had absolutely no time to react as the spear pierced him; the force of the strike uprooted his extra appendages and threw him back. All he could do was let off a small "oof" and groan. The vampire chuckled.

"Hehehe... Remilia strikes again!" the said person cracked her knuckles. Her posture loosened as she crossed her arms. She was going to see if the crow youkai was going to get back up.

Mukei was pinned. He wanted to panic. He wanted to demolish the vampire. He wanted to fight some more.

He wanted to have fun.

This was probably the best fight he's had in over a decade, and he was not going to let it stop now.

The spear was stuck firmly in the ground, but, eventually, he was able to jump back up. Blood had almost painted his entire robe, and his breathing became panting.

Yet, he was smiling.

"Why aren't you dead yet?" Remilia's eyes widened in disbelief while letting her arms fall, "Nobody survives that!" True enough, with all the burning energy in the attack, nobody survived a blow from Gungnir outside of spell card duels. (Since this wasn't a spell card duel, something she noticed right at the start, she was allowed to use magic to the fullest extent.) That was her trump card, and it failed.

Mukei did not reply. His grip on his nagamaki tightened. His artificial limbs shifted in place.

Then, he took flight, traveling a good distance upwards. The polearm was raised above his head, ready to be brought down and bisect the vampire. If she did what he thought she would do...

"Coward! Come back, and meet your death!"

That had to be the signal.

With the little time he had, Mukei summoned a portal. It was directly in Remilia's flightpath and would bring her deeper into the nightmare. There, he could begin tormenting her.

It was nice not to be restricted by the spell card rules.

Remilia was engulfed in energy and flying at her opponent. She was using her Dracula Cradle: the technique that had become one of her spell cards. She flew right into the rift and slammed into something hard. It closed as soon as she entered.

"Oh, this is going to be fun!" Mukei could barely contain his excitement; he grinned like a child who had just received a birthday present. He summoned another portal and charged in, maintaining his stance. Now the fun began.

* * *

><p>"Surprise!" the youkai brought the blade down on the vampire. It sliced through Remilia's right shoulder, completely cutting the right arm off. He landed on his two artificial feet while the other two dug into the walls.<p>

"Gaaaaah!" Remilia staggered but was able to fling her left fist at Mukei. She was too late to retaliate, so, of course, Mukei noticed in time to jump back.

Mukei took the time to laugh at Remilia's predicament. "Hahahaha! Not so tough now, are you?" He noticed that the portal brought them into what seemed to be the Scarlet Devil Mansion; with all the decor and lighting, it was hard to say otherwise. Light red walls, a red carpeted floor, and a lone candleholder with a tiny lit candle backed that statement.

"Shut up!" Remilia charged her remaining claw with energy, then unleashed a Vampire Claw.

The youkai just leaned back, narrowly avoiding the energy slash. He countered with a stab, which forced the vampire to jump back. Then, another stab; the vampire somersaulted back. Finally, a third stab made Remilia flap her wings, pushing her out from harm's way.

He had to get her to run away. Unfortunately, Remilia was not going to sacrifice her dignity and simply run away. No, he would have to scare the living daylights out of her. He knew what would do the trick.

"Nightmare Sign, Inquisitor's Needle!" Mukei shouted. There was really no need to declare the corresponding spell card; he was still in the dream world, separate from Gensokyo and its rules. However, it would give Remilia the illusion that she was awake and, not to mention, powerless.

A portal made of dark red bullets materialized behind Mukei. His two standing legs joined the other two on the walls, raising him above the portal. A flurry of needles rushed out of the portal like a flood right after, with a final giant needle ending the barrage.

"The chase begins!" the youkai's yell echoed across the mansion, "There's nowhere to hide, Remilia; run away!"

From where he was, Mukei saw the vampire turn tail like a little child, flapping her wings to flee faster. He could not resist chuckling at the sight.

"Oh, why didn't I do this sooner? This is so much freaking fun!" Mukei fixed his grip on his weapon once more. Giddiness filled the youkai's mind, and uncontrollable giggling escaped him.

He turned to the portal under him. "Follow her," he commanded. The orbs followed, taking pursuit of their prey. The portal would continue shooting needles to give Remilia an incentive to running away: she was not going to become a pincushion.

Remilia was halfway down the hall when the youkai began chasing her. She could see a door at the end; it led to the main hall of the second floor, and from there, she would hopefully escape the abomination.

Must get out- Must get out- Must get out-

The insane giggling reached her ears. This was just like when Flandre was chasing her out of the basement. Remilia's heart kicked against her chest as she ran, her breathing was borderline hyperventilation, and her skin was burning hot from all the blood rushing through her system.

She peeked behind her.

"Aah!" she yelped and picked up her pace. They were following her. The needles, the guy, and the portal were following her. From that one glance, Mukei looked like a spider creeping towards its prey, or like a limp marionette ready to slice her up into bits. That smile of his only worsened the mood. Now she felt like her whole body was going to burst at any moment.

Must get out must get out must get out-

The few seconds it took leaving the hallway seemed like forever to Remilia. At last, she reached the door. Her hands fumbled with the doorknob, eventually getting the door open. She slammed the door just as the pursuer was an inch away from getting out. Needles flew into the wood and plunged themselves into the door. Remilia yelped and jumped back in surprise.

Now she could get some rest. She clutched the stump that was once her arm, and left the door.

Mukei was standing right in front of her.

"Hi."

Remilia's primal scream filled the mansion. She turned tail again, heading for the stairway to the ground floor.

"Hee, hee, hee!" Mukei got a good laugh out of scaring the vampire. He leaped at his prey, only missing a few inches from her. So close.

The chase resumed. The quadruped charged with the fervor of a rabid wolf. The same could be said for Remilia, who was running for dear life. They were sixty feet away, while Remilia's salvation in the form of stairs was much nearer. No need to rush, Mukei thought. Remilia would eventually tire out, and then the real stuff could begin. He giggled at that thought.

"Have you given up, yet?" the youkai taunted. She sure was taking her sweet time. He let the vampire outrun him and saw her sprint down the staircase. He sped towards the U-shaped staircase. Wasting no time, he stepped onto the railing and jumped to the bottom. Remilia was still ahead of him, heading for another set of stairs.

Mukei mentally kicked himself for choosing a place with a lot of stairs. His plan needed a little more fine-tuning later.

They passed through the main lobby and previously mentioned staircase to the library. Mukei had no idea why the girl had chosen to flee here. He planned his next move.

* * *

><p>Remilia was in the center of the library, taking a short break. Her pursuer stood idly at the entrance; why he was just standing there, she had no idea.<p>

Then, he made his move.

"Grand Illusion, Night Cutter!" Mukei brandished his blade left, creating a white narrow rift in front of him. An outward curving curtain of bullets came out of the rift, along with an inward curving funnel of bullets. Remilia chose not to fight back and instead ran deeper into the library. She hid behind the last bookcase before the wall of the room. Then it became quiet.

The bullet spitting rift closed. So, a little game of hide-and-seek before she gave up?

"I guess I'll have to play along," Mukei skittered to the depths of the room, looking left and right to see if there was anybody hiding between the shelves. This was the first time he had been to this library, and he was impressed by the staggering collection of books neatly kept there.

Creak-

The creaking sound came from the left, all the way at the end of the room. Remilia had given her hiding spot away.

Baring his teeth, he rushed to the source of the sound. The cold wind flew past him, and the sight of the library's books became a blur. No one was there when he arrived, but the creaking intensified. Maybe she was behind that bookcase?

He did not get the chance to inspect the case, as it started to lean forward ever so slowly.

"Beat it, freak!" Remilia screamed. She was indeed behind the wooden frame. With all the strength she had left, she shoved the bookcase away from her. The base of the frame started tilting, and books fell off one by one, creating a mounting cascade of hardbound books.

All that Mukei could do was stare at the falling objects. He had to escape, of course, but he could not let Remilia know he did. What now?

He focused. Anything could happen in a dream, so why not surviving? That was the only thing that he thought of; he braced himself for impact.

Thud thud thud thud thud-

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow- "

The books rained down, knocking him down. Like a falling giant, the gigantic bookcase began to fall closer and closer and closer...

"Ow, ow, ow- hey, this thing is really big- ow, ow-"

BAM!

The shelves landed on his shoulders, groin and calves; Mukei could hear some bones cracking and feel something warm and tasty in his mouth. The wooden frame pushed against his shoulders so hard they were pushed through the skin. Lastly, he could feel the ground give away from under him. He was dropped away from the carnage and behind a happy Remilia. The manipulation worked!

Besides the laughter of the vampire, the library had fallen into silence. The floor had been transformed into something like a ramp covering a field of squished books. With another grin, he crept up to the panting vampire. His panting was made audible; the vampire could hear it, and it made her freeze in place. A finger lightly tapped her shoulder.

"Hi, again."

Remilia whirled around. She saw the horrendous form of the youkai; blood dripped from his mouth, two bones penetrated his shoulder, making his arms wiggle around limply, and bloody fangs were bared together with a still crazed smile.

This time, there was no scream. She revealed a glowing claw, and it plunged into Mukei's flesh to leave a bloody gash, eliciting a grunt and making his four other legs stagger. The vampire backed away right after.

Remilia slurped the blood off her hands. "Oh, you taste very GOOD! I will feast on you later!"

Just as the vampire was about to resume her attack, the sound of an opening door echoed through the room. A small silhouette was outlined against the dark of the preceding hallway, gaining more color as it walked out.

"What's going on- oh, hey, sis! Are you playing with someone? Can I play with you? Please?"

Both Remilia and the intruder looked at the girl, then Remilia's eyes darted back at the intruder. The girl looked like she had just woken up. Her messy blonde hair was proof of that. Her pink shirt, red dress, and similarly-colored vest looked crumpled; maybe she curled up during her sleep? Like Remilia, she also had red eyes. The most peculiar thing about the girl was that she had a very weird pair of wings: each wing was made up of eight colored crystals attached to a seemingly artificial wing frame jutting from the girl's back.

"Flan, wait until I'm done playing with him," Remilia readied her claws once more, pouncing o-

The girl nicknamed "Flan" made a flying tackle at her sister, pushing her away. "No! It's about time you played with me!" she turned to the quadruped and continued, "You can play with us, if you want."

This was going along much better than Mukei originally thought. In fact, it was going along just as planned instead of derailing. He stabbed his weapon into the floor, muttering, "Well, I won't be needing this anymore." Three slender bird talons erupted from three fingers on both of his hands, a feature present in every bird youkai. (Every youkai had some sort of unnatural, animalistic feature.)

"Don't mind if I do!" came his reply.

Remilia swept the hair blocking her eyes away, coolly stating, "So this is how you want to play, Flandre. Okay, then, don't go crying after this!" she flashed a spell card while laughing, "Hahaha! We'll play, alright! Night Sign, Bombard Night!"

From behind the pair of fun-hungry playmates, a shockwave of energy exploded upward, sending books flying into the air while leaving behind a trail of smaller shockwaves as it advanced towards the two. The two moved to the sides and prepared their counterattacks.

"Yay, we get to play again!" Flandre bent her legs and launched herself at Remilia, then followed it up with an energized uppercut. Remilia effortlessly somersaulted backwards to dodge it, following up with her own downward slash. The younger sister yelped in pain as she was pushed back by the momentum of the attack.

Mukei pounced with talons ready to slash. Unfortunately, they did not land a hit; the vampire kicked in his direction, and from her foot, a wedge-shaped bullet was released, knocking the would-be assailant out of the air.

The duo recovered at the same moment and charged, with their sharp objects pointing forward. This time, Remilia drew another spell card and planted it on the ground.

"Bat, Vampire's Web!"

A pulse of red energy exploded from the makeshift land mine. Flandre was forced to stop her charge, although Mukei continued to press forward.

A frown formed on the latter's face as he exclaimed, "Oops!" before being blown back by the bomb. Flandre resumed her charge under the cover of the bright light of the spell card.

Claws came down on Remilia's shoulders as she was attacked, along with an unintentional headbutt that knocked her down. She forced herself up.

To Remilia, this was all very excruciatingly painful. Her already closed cuts still stung, and the new injuries were sending dozen of pain signals into her brain. Her shoulder joints were slashed halfway through, making her remaining arm dangle and look like it was ready to be torn off. A migraine exploded from all the pain she felt, and it was not helping one bit. Her skin was burning hot, and her face was already throbbing from her exhaustion.

Despair filled all of her thoughts. She was losing. She was probably going to die. No one was going to help her. There was still more pain to come.

She wanted all the pain to go away. She wanted it to disappear.

She wanted it to go away.

"Go away... go away, go away, go away- go away!" Remilia threw a flurry of energy spears at her two "playmates." She was finally screaming.

"Aw, come one, sis, I thought you wanted to play?" Flandre ran across the jagged floor to dodge the spears. Her wings made a "clink-clink" sound when the spears whizzed past them.

Mukei stood idly by, trying not to draw any attention to himself. The plan was about to be completed, but it was taking a long time for the dream to end. At least it was entertaining. He could not "kill" the vampire yet; she was not traumatized enough.

"Oh, hey, an idea!" Maybe he could trap her in Flandre's room! There was a narrow corridor leading there, and narrow corridors were the stuff of nightmares.

He didn't think about his course of action anymore. Mukei bum-rushed his way to Remilia, showing a Cheshire cat's grin to scare her off. Of course, it worked, and she fled towards the end of the library.

At the dead end of the library, there were only two ways to continue to: one path circled the library, while the other was the path to Flandre's room. Remilia was heading for her sister's room. There was no way she could outrun her sister and the... thing in the circle path. The elder vampire reached for the doorknob and yanked it, ripping it out of its frame before flying in.

Before Mukei could continue chasing, an overeager Flandre pushed him out of her way, shouting "Come back, sis! Come back and play!" All that was left to do was to wait for the victim to be dead.

* * *

><p>The two sisters flew done the hallway like missiles. Remilia could hear echoes in the corridor, all of them repeating, "Onee-chan... onee-chan..."<p>

"...come play!" Flandre's voice fit so well with the echoes that she was probably the one creeping her out.

Remilia flew through the door at the end of the hall and landed in the middle of her sister's room. Bits and pieces of fabric and stuffing lay scattered about; unsurprisingly, with all her youkai strength, all the toys Flandre plays with gets destroyed. The floor, like the rest of the floors in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, was carpeted with red material. The only furniture in the room was a cabinet, two chairs, and a nondescript canopy bed. Hanging from the ceiling was a lit chandelier that illuminated the room. It was really bright, but, surprisingly, it didn't hurt her vampire skin.

"It's time to see you break... _onee-chan_!" Remilia turned around to see Flandre say the last two words, "It's so much fun to see things break! I don't know why, but it's so funny! Heeheeheehee...!"

"Flan, stop this nonsense this instant!" Remilia had one last chance at survivng. Surely she could change her fate in order to live?

Unfortunately, it was already too late. Flandre's hand was already extended, opened, and directed at her.

"Heeheeheeheeheehee...!"

Red crackling energy engulfed Flandre's outstretched hand, and on her palm, a small ball appeared.

"Do you know what's going to break first?" Flandre's fingers looked strained and began to twitch along with her eyes.

Suddenly, Remilia threw a fireball at her sister. Hopefully, it would buy her time to subdue the manic girl.

"HeeheeheeHAHAHAHAHA!" Flandre's shrill laughter pierced the tension in the room as she closed her hand, "Kyuu!"

The gory torture had started.

Remilia's remaining hand bloated up, then exploded in a burst of bone, muscle, and blood.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!" A wraithlike screech filled the room. The victim clutched where her hand used to be in an attempt to ease the pain. The problem was, it wasn't there anymore, but it still felt like it was.

"Heeheeheehee~! I never knew it was so fun breaking you, onee-_sama_! Hahahahaha...!" Flandre's childish laughter let off a sadistic feeling in the air, "I'll try to break you as slow as I can!"

The pain was practically splitting Remilia's mind. She experienced the sensation of her insides exploding and her bones ringing as if they were being hammered. The pain from the detonation of her hand was being repeated endlessly. She could feel warm blood flowing out of her opened wrist. Her head convulsed slightly from all the pressure being forced on it, and it almost looked like it could erupt.

"Make it STOP! Make it STOP!" she then pursed her mouth and strained to prevent herself from screaming any further. She wanted to stop Flandre. She even wanted her to kill her. She wanted her to die, if it meant that the pain would end.

She wanted her to die.

_Die. Pain. Die. Die die pain die die die pain die die die die pain kill kill kill kill kill KILL! So much PAIN, I'm going to die! So much pain, so much pain, so much pain, I'm going to di-_

"I'm going to die. I'm going to die!"

Faced with the horrible realization of death, Remilia could only scream. She had lost her mind.

"No. No, no, no! NO! NOOOO!" In a fit of desperation, sadness, and insane rage, Remilia forcefully beat her wings once and flung herself at Flandre. The younger vampire simply pushed her hands to her front, repelling the humanoid projectile. The attacker flew away limply and slammed lifelessly on the floor.

"Aw, you were never this pathetic when we last played..." Once again, her hand gained the red aura of destruction. Flandre grinned wickedly, aiming it at Remilia's arm. A slightly bigger orb formed in its center. It was tantalizing to break it now, but Flandre had to wait for her sister, who was lying face down on the ground, to see it.

So, she waited and waited. When she realized that this waiting was getting nowhere quickly, her aim changed and focused on Remilia's chest. The orb in her palm changed accordingly to a much larger one.

"Onee-chan, rise and shine!" Flandre stormed over to her sister, grabbing her by the head. A pained expression was printed on Remilia's face, but this expression was frozen into place. Not a sound came from the vampire; not even a whimper escaped her.

"Do you see this?" the young vampire shoved the engulfed hand in front of Remilia's face, "Do you?" She received no reply. Her fingers suddenly took a claw position, almost touching the orb. That finally elicited a whimper from the elder vampire.

"The next things to break are your insides! Kyuu!" Flandre closed her hand shut.

A new wave of screams came from Remilia as her nerves went into overdrive. She could feel solid bits of... something push against her skin. Besides the sudden absence of internal organs, stomach acids that had been released from the detonation began eating at her other insides.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHH!" Remilia's legs began kicking wildly. Flandre destroyed those, too. As Remilia's body continued convulsing, one final orb formed in Flandre's hand. She waved it mockingly in front of her victim.

"No! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO-" The elder vampire began to resemble a young child throwing her best tantrum. Flandre threw her down.

"I hope we get to play again some time, onee-chan! Hahahahaha...!" Amidst the screaming, Flandre's laughed morphed into something evil and victorious.

"I thought you wanted to play. I even thought you still couldn't break. What happened, sis?" A slap registered on Remilia's face.

"I thought you were so powerful. I thought you were never scared. Where did all that self-esteem go? You're nothing without it, are you?" Seeing no response, Flandre clenched her sister's shoulders, and shouted, "Answer me! Are you?"

Remilia's lips wiggled before finally letting out her words. "YES! YES! I'm nothing without it! Now leave me alone!"

"Okay, then!" Flandre balled her other hand and smashed the orb using it, shouting, "Kyuu!"

* * *

><p>Mukei sensed it. Remilia's subconscious was starting to retract from Genmukai. The dream was collapsing. Gravity went haywire as books, furniture, and the like were beginning to float away in the air while the ground trembled, sending still grounded objects falling.<p>

"Oh, no, you don't!" Mukei's hands glowed white as he raised them in the air. Thread-like streams flowed from it and stuck to some invisible wall.

"Revert the dream!" As the youkai shouted this, a black orb began snaking along the streams towards the barrier. The dream began to stabilize and change into a normal-looking Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Mukei was now aboveground, standing beside a tree behind the mansion. The final stage of the plan was in place.

Using his powers as a bird youkai, Mukei turned into a crow and flew to the grand balcony of what hopefully was Remilia's bedroom. The French doors of the balcony were inexplicably open. He glided into the room, perching on a chair inside.

The resident of the room looked quizzically at Mukei. Upon closer inspection, the person turned out to be Remilia, who had just "woken up."

Now, for the last step.

Mukei sailed through the room with talons bared. Oh, the look of horror on the vampire's face was too hilarious!

"Caw!"

"Aaaah!" The talons sank into her throat. Remilia was being suffocated. Blood trickled down her mouth as her eyes widened. She struggled to take the bird off her neck, but to no avail. In a span of a minute, give or take a few seconds, she was dead. It was a good thing they were not in Gensokyo, or else the vampire would revive and claw the guts out of the crow.

Once again, her subconscious was withdrawing, and the dream started to break. Mukei released his claws and flew out of the room and into the sky, phasing through the invisble barrier into Genmukai.

* * *

><p>The moment Remilia's vision blacked out, the dream transmission ended. The strings attached to the foreheads of Remilia, Sakuya, Meiling, and Patchouli pulled themselves out and retracted back into the bullet, which dissipated right after.<p>

Instantly, Meiling and Sakuya clutched their heads with one hand. They did not feel the full brunt of pain from the dream, but they had to resist the urge to scream.

"What in Gensokyo could make this..." Meiling searched for the word, and continued, "...nightmare?"

Sakuya was in agreement. "It was so otherworldly, I'm sure it was artificial. Someone is playing around with Lady Remilia's mind."

"So, we've come to the same conclusion. Someone is playing a trick on me, and that's why I called you here," Remilia pointed to Patchouli and Sakuya before continuing, "I want the two of you, Patchouli and Sakuya, to track down whoever set that dream up! I'm pretty sure that the dream was no ordinary one. Patchouli, find leads on the person behind all this. Tell me right away if you've found any. Sakuya, you are to follow the leads Patchouli finds. Bring the culprit to me, so that I can give them a piece of my mind!"

"Understood," the two mentioned people calmly replied before bowing their heads.

"Now, back to the matter at hand. Let's drink some tea, for old times sake. I need to get that bad dream out of my head."

"I'll go prepare the tea," Sakuya left the room as the other three gathered around a table in front of Remilia's bed.

Meiling started the conversation. "Hey, I hear that there's gonna be another concert in front of the mansion." Then the room was then filled with excited chatter as the old friends talked the day away.

* * *

><p>"Okay, that's one down. Three more to go!"<p>

Mukei returned to his humanoid form while he recalled who his targets were. He got three of the "nightmare balls" out of his robe and began to juggle them.

"Should I go for the chaotic or the surprise tactic? Hmm..." At that point, he stopped juggling and caught all the balls again. He figured out his next stop.

"Road trip!" A portal opened beneath him, pulling him to Gensokyo. It was going to be a long trek, and there was going to be a lot of wasted time, so he was probably going to have to make a stop to get his third target. Off he was, then!

* * *

><p>Chiseki had managed to get away from the intense fight between the immortals.<p>

"Why is there no place in Gensokyo where I can get rest?"

A conveniently placed boulder rested beside a patch of bamboo. Chiseki jumped to the top of the rock and sat down, getting some well-deserved rest. The sun was setting; soon, she would have to get home and-

"Who's that over there?" the magician's eyes narrowed as she observed the traveler. White-black robe, green bandana-

She rushed towards the figure in the distance. It was her brother, Mukei. She arrived panting for breath. Before Mukei could react, she cut him off with a question.

"Where the heck have you been?"


	4. Cacophony

**Well, enjoy the next chapter. Is anyone reading this, anyway?**

* * *

><p>This was wasting his time.<p>

He had to answer anyway. "...I've been pranking," Mukei nonchalantly replied. He looked straight into Chiseki's eyes, wishing that she'd get lost as soon as possible. This was making his skin go cold; if he said the wrong words or let off the wrong impressions, well...

"Pssh, yeah, right. I'm willing to bet that you got your sorry behind handed to you as well," the magician chuckled at the thought of him getting beat up.

"Think whatever you want. Now, get out of the way, 'cause I'm about to be late," the crow youkai pushed his way out of the talk and headed for the forest of bamboo behind them.

"Late for what?" As she was saying this, Chiseki reached for a pocket on her robe, taking out a small white paper tag. She felt the tight weight of her clothing restricting her arms as she flung it at the unknowing Mukei's back. The awkward angle at which she threw it worried her, but nevertheless, she successfully tagged him. It faded as soon as it stuck to its target.

"...hmm... Nah, you don't need to know," Mukei looked over his shoulder as he was leaving. He had felt something bump into him, but this was quickly dismissed as a sudden breeze of wind.

As soon as the youkai's form had disappeared into the forest, the magician snickered. Her tracking tag went undetected, and he suspected nothing.

"I wonder where he'll end up after getting caught!"

* * *

><p>BOOM!<p>

Loud explosions rang overhead. This hurt Mukei's ears very much; his acute youkai senses seemed to make them sound louder.

What they couldn't discern was the direction he was supposed to take. Like every other person who had ventured in, he was lost. There were a lot of times when this problem never came up, but-

"Of all the times I could get lost, it just had to be now," the crow groaned. The entire place was covered in bamboo stalks, and they were all pretty much identical. The sky above it was all the same shade of orange, except for some clouds and the occasional birds flying in the sky.

"Wait." Birds flew above the bamboo forest, but not through it.

The sound of flesh slapping against flesh rang throughout the area, followed by a "woosh" and some flapping of wings.

* * *

><p>The immortals' duel continued relentlessly, lighting the night sky with fervent displays of light. One attacked with aggressive flames, and the other retaliated with rainbow-colored danmaku. One was surrounded in the aura of the phoenix, while the other was accompanied with five floating objects.<p>

Mokou and Kaguya circled each other at rapid speeds, shooting phoenix-patterned bullets and disconnected branches of bullets respectively. They snaked through the other's attacks as the circling continued, but with varying degrees of success; Mokou's clothes had been nicked by several bullets, leaving tears in their wake, while parts of Kaguya's dress were scorched by some unavoidable barrages.

The two broke out of the cycle and flew opposite each other. The immortal human began shouting; her feet were now surrounded with a flaming ring. The same could be said with the Lunarian, whose accompanying objects began glowing red. Their intense gaze never broke from their place.

On cue, they flung themselves at each other, matching each others push. The impact practically exploded with energy. When the two collided, their hands pushed against the others in an attempt to overwhelm the offense.

"Give it up. We've reached yet another stalemate," Kaguya sighed at the boring repetition the fight had gotten into. Given the amount of time they spent fighting, it was a wonder why Kaguya still had the energy to talk.

"Not unless someone forfeits first," Mokou was currently winning the small push fight.

Then the unexpected happened. Kaguya's arms loosened from their tense position, allowing Mokou to push her into the bamboo behind. Wood stuck against wood as Kaguya slammed into the ground. Was that sheer dumb luck? That had never happened before, because they had always disengaged at the same time.

"Hey," Mokou called out, "'you okay back there? You seemed to have slipped up back there."

"You think?" Kaguya rose from the pile of bamboo she had managed to knock down. Sarcasm rang in her voice.

"Well, I'm calling it quits for tonight. I feel sleepy," Kaguya made a long genuine yawn to support that excuse before walking away from the scene.

Mokou's eyebrows were raised. "That's... new. Okay, see you tomorrow." The immortal fire-user suspected that this was another one of Kaguya's times for messing around.

While Kaguya strolled on her way back, she saw a familiar humanoid rabbit running towards her. Coupled with distressed shouts of "Master!", Kaguya could tell something bad had obviously happened.

"Master! Master! Something's happening!" the rabbit-human was gasping for breath, and sweat was all over her.

"Well, of course, something's happening, Reisen," the Lunarian casually addressed the servant, "How bad is it?"

"No!" the urgency in her refute very strong, "It's a serious problem!"

Reisen had reported these kinds of things before, but the last part perked Kaguya's ears.

"...go on."

"Yagokoro-sama is becoming dangerously feverish! I don't know why! She wasn't sick today, and she was perfectly fine before she entered her room, but-"

"That's enough," Kaguya's pseudo-command silenced Reisen, calming both of them down, "It's no use trying to solve things when one can't think calmly. Let's go."

* * *

><p>After a thankfully uneventful flight, the moon rabbit lead her master to the room of the mentioned Lunarian pharmacist. A bowl filled with water was on a nightstand, and a towel was laid beside it. The sleeping resident had a towel on her head, probably soaked in the water from the bowl.<p>

What Reisen reported as something horrible did not seem the same at the actual place.

"Inaba, Eirin doesn't seem to be in a bad condition at all," Kaguya eyed the moon rabbit, who was now placing the back of her hand on Eirin's neck and replacing the used towel with a new one. The servant did not reply.

"How did you find out that she had a fever, anyway?"

Reisen turned. "I came to ask for the master key to the security system of the laboratory. I was busy cleaning up in the lab, and Yagokoro-sama had gone to sleep already. She told me to wake her up if I needed the key to lock it up. When I came, though...," her voice trailed off, and she no longer continued.

"I see," Kaguya mused, "From your explanation, this sounds like an elaborate plot to raid the stores. Or just plain coincidence."

"None of the rabbits have encountered a thief yet."

"Hmm... maybe someone wants to-"

Kaguya was cut off as Eirin jerked up from her bed, awake and gasping for breath as if she had been running.

* * *

><p>Eirin found herself inexplicably chained to some wooden pane. She was still in the position when she laid down on her bed: facing the ceiling, flat on the back of her head.<p>

Her surroundings were all pitch black; there was no light source anywhere, but she could still see in front of her.

A drop of water fell on her forehead, greeting the pharmacist with a cold sensation. It was a gentle drop, nothing serious or anything-

Plop! Another water droplet crashed onto her skin. Eirin tried looking at the source of the water, and found it was an oval-shaped basin-

"What's going on?" Eirin, in her calm voice, sounded like she was about to get angry.

Plop! Another water droplet. Her eyelids twitched. The water droplets did not fall consistently; the intervals were all different from the last.

As the next droplet fell, Eirin shook her chain binds, gaining nothing but the sound of rattling metal. She was thoroughly restrained.

Plop! These water droplets were getting annoying. She took another look at the basin.

Plop! It had a very tiny opening at the bottom, and a valve was attached to that hole. Tilting her head further, she could see part of a red curved outline of an object above and behind her head.

Plop! Once again, she attempted to stretch her arms outward but was restrained after going a mere foot above the wooden surface.

Plop! This time, the water began inching towards her eyes. The water irritated her skin, and the urge to rub the liquid off was intense. Eirin tried lifting her head off the wood, only to find a metal band restraining her neck.

As her head bounced back to the wood, it caught yet another water droplet. Her eyes gazed into the dark nothingness to forget about this ordeal, but this made her mind focus more on the thumping of the water. After the next droplet had landed onto Eirin, she could have sworn its thump echoed into her ears.

Plop!

Plop!

Plop!

Tick! Tock!

"What?" Eirin caught the sound. It sounded like clockwork, undisturbed by the perpetual silence of the place.

Tick! Tock! Plop! The clock's rhythm was carving itself in Eirin's mind. She could feel her thoughts drifting to the sound of the clock. It was so perfectly normal.

Plop! Her mind split its attention again to the water droplets. She still had to brace herself for them, even if she could not tell when they would fall.

Tick, tock! PLOP! The pounding of the water was getting louder, and it started to feel like someone was knocking on it. It was not strong, but it was not weak, either.

Eirin grunted as the next drop landed. She was trying to concentrate on the clock, damn it! Why couldn't the water just stop-

PLOP! Tick, tock!

"Wait a minute. Why am I even here?"

The moment she said this, the invisible dome confining her began to wobble, like she had said some magical phrase. The wobbling was unnaturally loud, like a firm sheet of metal being shaken. For a moment, its cacophony drowned everything out. Eirin's face twisted in pain.

Then the water hit her head again.

This time, hell broke loose.

The strike of the water now brought the fury of an oni on her temple, and Eirin was struggling to move away. The clock's rhythm distorted into a freakish echo that assaulted the pharmacist's ears. The wooden table she rested on was getting too uncomfortable, as if it had become concrete. Just to see if that had actually happened, Eirin tried to look to the side, forgetting that she couldn't.

Only five seconds into the new mental battle, Eirin had already fully succumbed to the pain. She found herself fighting against her own body, for she had been jerking from her horizontal position. The muscles in her cheek were straining, almost like they were going to rip themselves off her face. Only now, she could feel the copious amount of sweat she had generated streaking across her head, highlighting the throbbing sensation of the muscles around her brain. It was a cool contrast to the internal heat firing up within her body fat.

To her own dismay, Eirin had to scream. Her jerked movement had turned into convulsions, and her breathing had sped up into hyperventilation. Sour liquid had made its way up her gut and was threatening to spill out of her mouth.

Worst of all, she knew exactly what was happening.

_The symptoms of extreme concussions and mental trauma_, she concluded. How she had remained coherent enough to scrounge that idea up, she did not know, nor did she care. All she knew now was that she was in the shoes of one of her many, many patients. Before, such behavior only raised concern in her, but not sympathy or any emotion of that kind.

Now, she could see the hell they had gone through. Pain. More and more pain.

Perhaps, it would have been enough, but overkill said otherwise. A burning sensation invaded Eirin's abdomen; she looked in front- pain -of her to see a shadowy figure- pain -sticking a dagger into her middle, dragging it- pain -across.

The screaming was now involuntary.

Eirin could feel- pain -the blade- PAIN -being dragged- PAIN -through her intestines, each cord- PAIN -posing no- PAIN -resistance to the sharp edge- PAIN -pushing through- PAIN -them. Blood streaked through her like a raging deluge. Her violent behavior- PAIN -persisted- PAIN -until the dagger- PAIN -met the- PAIN -end of its journey.

PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN-

The figure pulled it out from the organic mass that was Eirin and retreated into the unfathomable darkness.

She was now left to die...

...until a rat came.

The near-incoherent Eirin looked fearfully at the curious creature who stood at before her, trembling at the thought of its next action.

It scampered up to her open abdomen, baring its teeth.

Before it could sink in to the incoherent mess that Eirin had been made into, she woke up.

* * *

><p>Kaguya immediately fell back, startled at Eirin's reaction.<p>

"How long has it been?" came Eirin's first disgruntled question. The Lunarian princess noticed her retainer shutting her eyes forcefully every few seconds.

"Only two hours, master," Reisen answered. She, too, backed away from the pharmacist as if she were a bomb when she woke.

Eirin shot a glare towards the moon rabbit before returning the same gaze at Kaguya. Every part of her trembled incessantly, and her chest rose erratically, with her breath coming out shakily. She sat erect, her mouth agape.

"What happened... Eirin?" Kaguya voiced reluctantly. She did not know what to make of Eirin's condition; she had been asleep with a burning fever, if Reisen was to be trusted, and awoke, having seemingly exerted the effort of a triathlete in a race from beyond the ocean and back.

The woken dreamer immediately rose from her bed and stormed towards the door, her long white robe trailing behind her. "A plan was orchestrated; that's what happened," she looked back before returning to her hurried march.

Neither Kaguya nor Reisen failed to follow her. "Explain," the former princess commanded.

With a heavy sigh, Eirin resignedly turned to answer.

"I do not know what plan it may be, or who planned it, but it has worked. I had been experiencing a nightmare that I could not force myself to wake up from. It was almost specially made for that; I realized it was a dream, and the dream, in turn, reacted."

"So, you're saying that someone was able to make you dream that kind of dream, and that it was meant to fulfill some goal," Kaguya inferred, crossing her arms.

"Yes," Eirin nodded, "but there is one other thing. This person was able to come near me or the vicinity of Eientei, thus being able to pass something on to me. I don't know if it's one of my nightmare pills or something different entirely."

"But why would you be so concerned with this?" Kaguya asked, "A measly plan should not be enough to warrant such concern."

Eirin shook her head. "You have much to learn, Kaguya-sama, if you will shake this off as some sort of freaky coincidence. Since the dream was something forced on me, it's only logical that the result should be something that will advance this plan. There are only two outcomes: I will be either too scared and irrational, or the dream will backfire on the scheme. You can obviously see that it's the latter," she quickly pronounced.

Reisen, who was silent for the whole time, spoke her question. "How can you be an obstacle to this plan you keep talking about?"

"You caught on. Good. Obviously, I plan on doing my job as a good obstruction. That thing you mentioned is something I don't think we'll know, but I'm sure we can force it out of someone. Now, I'll need both of you to come with me. We have Tewi to pick up."

* * *

><p>"No, I haven't seen anyone <em>that<em> suspicious," a disgruntled Tewi said.

The trio had come to the Rabbit of the Earth's room, with Eirin barging into the room in utmost haste. This had inevitably woken the sleeping rabbit from her slumber, grogginess still heavy on her eyes. Obviously, she was not pleased.

"Maybe the other rabbits have seen someone suspicious," Reisen suggested. Only now did she talk freely, seeing as one of her colleagues were with them.

"Can't say for sure. I'll round them up, then you can ask them all they want," Tewi leaped from her futon, barging out of her room the same way Eirin did going in.

The three could hear Tewi's faint screams off "Rabbits, get your butts over here!" and her audible banging on the shoji of the hallways. Soon afterwards, the pitter-patter of feet drowned out anything they would have been able to hear. Curious, they slid their door to find the last few rabbits running to the right.

"Well, nothing to do over here, is there? Let's go already!" Eirin went ahead, her almost running speed allowing her to cover a quarter of the hall in a few seconds.


End file.
